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Of the 3.5 million deaf in our country, almost all have to struggle to get through life, without any proper counseling, education or job opportunities. Though a significant number of these people are children, there exists a lack of proper educational facilities. The need of the hour was a
soild grounding in basic and vocational education for the hearing and speech impaired and thus the Bajaj Institute of Learning was born.
The Bajaj Public Charitable Trust is a registered, voluntary, secular Trust established in 1966. Recognizing the insufficient resources available in the country to address the educational and training needs of handicapped persons, especially hearing/speech impaired, the Trust established as a division, the Bajaj Institute of Learning (BIL) in 1999. BIL aims to provide to this disadvantaged group, quality services that would equip them towards economic independence and self-sufficiency.
The major institution supported by DEEDS is Bajaj Institute of Learning Dehra Dun. The institute was founded in the year 1999 by Bajaj Public Charitable Trust to provide free education to the hearing impaired students. It provides the following facilities.
• Free education from Pre-School to Class XII
• Vocational training in computers and Cutting and Tailoring.
• Affiliation with National Institute of Open Schooling for academic & vocational courses
• Diagnostic centre equipped with state of the art gadgets, for free hearing assessment and speech therapy.
The specific features of Bajaj Institute of Learning with regard to deaf education are as follows.
The institute follows Bilingual systems of education as against the oral-aural system followed by most of the institutions for deaf education in India
Bilingual system is a successful model for deaf education as proved in western countries.
In bilingual system of education, Indian Sign Language is the basic language of deaf children.
Indian Sign Language (ISL) is taught to the staff and students at the institute
The second language, English, is taught to the students with the help of ISL.
The institute receives guidance on the methods of teaching from Dr Madan Vasishta, a renowned Professor of Gallaudet University, Washington D.C.
The institute aims to become a model school for deaf in the country by the year 2015.
The Institute operates at Dehradun, in Uttranchal and currently offers facilities for vocational training, schooling, counseling and diagnostic services to persons with hearing/speech
disabilities throughout India. It is proposed to introduce further academic programmes for the target group and expand all its programmes for persons with other kinds of handicap, along with the expansion of the Institute. A Co-ordination center initiated at Mumbai is engaged in a continuous effort to network and liaison the government, with organizations offering similar services, corporate houses and concerned individuals so as to raise the requisite resources and goodwill for the cause.
Bajaj Institute of Learning, through an MOU with the Govt. of Uttarakhand, was declared as a State Resource Centre (SRC) for hearing impaired individuals in the year 2005. The highlight of its activities as the State Resource Centre. Are as follows.
It is responsible for the entire deaf population of Uttarakhand
It identifies and undertakes assessment of hearing impaired individuals by holding camps in every development block of every district in the state.
A total of 109 camps were conducted from April 2005 till Mar 2008 it has assessed 6488 individuals and counselled them for their rehabilitation.
A total of 2443 hearing aids were distributed free of cost to the needy individuals during these camps.
A total of 10 training courses were conducted during these years for the Government field works who in turn are expected to create awareness among the local population of the state on the incidence of deafness. The number of individuals trained during these courses was 119
A database of hearing impaired individuals in the state is being created.
DID YOU KNOW: "New research shows that the earlier you detect deafness in a child (ideally between 6-9 months of age), the easier it becomes for the child to overcome his handicap."
The future plans of Bajaj Institute of Learning are as follows.
• Construction of a hostel for 100 deaf students.
• Creating an Early Intervention Centre for deaf children.
• Starting a Bed (HI) Course for producing trained teachers in special education on hearing impairment.
• Starting additional vocational courses for hearing impaired students. In following disciplines.
? Beauty Culture &Hair Dressing.
? Fruit Preservation
? Bakery
? Cookery
• Induction of BERA machine for hearing assessment of Intants.
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